News Release

Bush’s Use of NSA Spying and the Law

Share

“Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 shall be the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance … may be conducted.”[FISA; 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2511(f)]

The following analysts are available for a limited number of interviews:

CHRISTOPHER H. PYLE
In 1970, Pyle disclosed the U.S. military’s surveillance of civilian politics and worked as a consultant to three Congressional committees, including the Church Committee — which wrote the FISA statute. He is co-author of the book The President, Congress, and the Constitution and author of the book Military Surveillance of Civilian Politics.

Pyle said today: “Bush is asserting an inherent war power to violate the Fourth Amendment. Senator [Frank] Church’s committee sought to end warrantless electronic surveillance. The method laid out in FISA is the only method. They made it very easy to get these wiretaps by creating a special court. Bush has violated that Act and the Act has a criminal statute associated with it. Anyone who violates that act is guilty of a felony punishment by up to five years imprisonment.” Pyle is currently a professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College.
More Information
More Information

JAMES BAMFORD
Bamford is author of several books including The Puzzle Palace: Inside America’s Most Secret Intelligence Organization, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency and most recently, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies.
More Information

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Fourth Amendment of the Constitution

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167